Cracks that open in the surface of Edyrea, breaking the barrier with The Forgotten Depths and opening portals; closing them is guild work.
Details
Every so often the surface of Edyrea splits, breaking the barrier between Edyrea and the Forgotten Depths, and when the barrier is breached, something on the other side often notices. New fissures open portals, and what comes out of them does not belong here (e01 00:04). The Guilds handle these cracks, fissures, and incursions (e00 00:23); usually they send their best to delve in and close the portals (e01 00:05). Delving into a fissure legally requires guild membership (e00 02:09).
Fissures are given a tier; the one Orrin entered was supposed to be tier nine (e01 00:17), and Caspian says portals from multiple planes immediately make it tier seven (e02 00:11). The Nightforge twins ask whether portals have been getting a lot stronger and more dangerous lately (e02 00:10). Fissures are also called Pale fissures: cracks in the Forgotten Depths that act as portals, out of which mindless, violent creatures emerge, and the source of the four player characters’ arrival on Edyrea (e00 00:24, e00 00:28).
A fissure below Wriem
The fissure Orrin and the Nightforge guild entered was in a closed-off city street in Wriem, with a shimmering teal barrier over the crack that Gilbert dispelled using a scroll (e01 00:11, e01 00:12). Below the entrance, a cavern corridor led into The Forgotten Depths (e01 00:15). It opened into a large cavern where moon goblins poured out of three green portals (e01 00:17). When that cavern’s floor gave way, it dropped everyone about 15 feet onto a ledge over a ravine lit by a large, differently tilted portal (e02 00:09, e02 00:09, e02 00:09); caves from there led to a cavern with a crack to the surface about 40 feet up, which Caspian reached by building a structure of ice (e02 00:25, e02 01:04). Afterward the ground of a square in Wriem collapsed into the fissure, and building-sized moon goblins climbed out through it (e02 01:10, e02 01:10).
Portals
The portals are green and crackling; tendrils of magic around them grew toward Orrin’s arm like roots as one closed (e01 01:35). Portals kept producing goblins occasionally after the main fight (e01 01:42). A portal in a crack in the cavern floor showed a sky with a full red moon, its light spilling into the cavern (e01 00:58).
Portals in this fissure closed when something was put through them:
- Orrin’s left arm (e01 01:35);
- a live cricket, which dissolved as the portal closed (e01 01:52);
- Caspian‘s pinky finger, which the portal severed as it closed (e01 01:54, e01 01:55).
Pushing a goblin’s body into a portal did not close it (e01 01:53). Wisp summed it up as needing to lose something to close one (e01 01:55).
A separate green portal opened behind the giant moon goblin and let the Black Wake through; when the ship was pulled back in, the goblins on its deck turned to blood on touching the portal (e01 00:36, e01 00:40, e01 00:41).
Relationships
- The Forgotten Depths — the fissures breach the barrier with it.
- The Guilds — close the portals.
- The Nightforge Guild — the guild on this fissure.
- Moon Goblin — the creatures that came out of this fissure’s portals.
- The Black Wake — came through a fissure portal and was pulled back out.
Episode history
- e00 (00:23) — mentioned as a source of incursions guilds deal with; Pale fissures described as the source of the player characters’ arrival.
- e01 (00:04) — how fissures open, tiers, a fissure below Wriem, and how its portals were closed.
- e02 (00:11) — portals from multiple planes make a fissure tier seven; the fissure below Wriem breaks open into a city square.